Volunteering in DSCA for Down Syndrome Children - Essay Example

LEADERSHIP PORTFOLIO My is Amal Almubrad; I live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I have graduated from King Saud University with a Bachelor degree in English Language and Literature. I am working at King Saud University Medical city as a Purchasing Specialist. I worked for Saudi British Bank (SABB-HSBC) for 2.5 years as a Chargeback Supervisor in the Credit Card Department. I love to volunteer; I have been volunteering in DSCA for Down syndrome children for three years now. My sister is special, she was born with Down syndrome and she is “My Everything”, having her in my life has helped me to learn things that I may never learn. In addition, I love planning and organizing social events. Attending MBA will smooth the path of my goals. Such a program will deepen my expertise and broaden my perspectives. Above all, SEU MBA will help me strengthen both the financial knowledge and the entrepreneurial skills. I can be reached at amalalmubrad@gmail.com The assessment that I have completed during this course has served to make my self-reflect better, because I can comfortably evaluate a given topic as required. After provision of the feedback on the assessment I have learnt the areas that I need to improve upon and most especially self-study. I have been experiencing problems with self-study, because I believed I would only understand a given subject of study if I learn it in the classroom setting. However, after evaluating the assessments and the feedback I can now conduct my self-study and even learn ahead on the topics that we anticipate learning in class. The assessment that has been an eye-opening of them all is the leadership trait questionnaire (LTQ). This is because it helped me determine my personal leadership traits, as I took the assessment and evaluated the score; I know have admirable leadership traits, even though previously, I was not certain on the same. In order to improve the organizations leadership and determine individuals that have leadership traits I can utilize the LTQ on my colleagues and followers in the firm (Rosch, 2007). Prior to introducing the assessment in the organization, I will conduct my personal research on the firm’s leadership structure and the traits of those in leadership. This research will give me an opportunity to determine the traits that need to be addressed, the strengths and weakness of my colleagues. I will then analyze these factors and start my assessment by asking my colleagues what they fill about varying leadership issues and the traits they believe a quality leader should have in order to help the firm attain its goals. In essence, I will be asking the questions contained in the LTQ and I will be ranking an individual’s response on the scale; at the long last I will evaluate my colleagues’ scores and thereby determine an individual that qualifies as a leader. My self-confidence after the assessment was proved to be low. When I was being asked questions I was quite shy and not overly confident. Lack of confidence is a trait that can let down the character traits of a leader. When a leader lacks confidence, they tend to mask their weaknesses with boldness. This is observed when problems arise. This poses great dangers to their firms as they tend to micromanage people and fail to listen to their colleagues because they feel they know everything and what is supposed to be done. On the other hand, confident leaders think differently where they celebrate their own achievements in a manner that is humble (Business Matters, 2014). In addition, these kinds of leaders accept their strengths and weakness and view their lack of confidence as something they should develop. After a review of the above aspects I have made several steps to help me improve on my self-confidence score. Developing a greater self-awareness that would help me understand my strengths and weakness in a way that is balanced is one of the steps I have made. I acknowledged the weakness and areas that am supposed to develop, in a constructive manner in order to help me view them as challenges but not obstacles. Again, I managed my inner dialogue and let go all the negative talks people say about me. By doing this, I took responsibility for the mistakes, and turn the situation into its positive aspect. From the LTQ assessment done to me, I realized that my leadership traits, skills and styles were not that pleasant but after the assessment I tried to improve on them. Leadership skills, traits and styles are important aspects a leader should possess. When you familiarize yourself with good leadership skills and qualities it will help identify one’s weaknesses with which will result to stronger management styles. In order to raise the score of my leadership traits, skills and styles I took into consideration the following steps; I developed passion for my work and made it feel important. I observed that this enthusiasm and passion motivated my employees to become more productive. Secondly, I improved on my communication with the staff in both lower and higher levels of my company. Understanding how to clearly explain tasks and projects to my employees, informing them with updates and changes in projects and holding meetings helps bring the team together and making them aware of the status of projects (Leviticus & Media, 2015). Finally, I developed the skill of decisiveness. Considering the fact that employees depend on leader’s decisions that are rather quick, logical and correct, I looked deep into the financial constraints and concerns of supervisors to enable me make fast decisions. As per the assessment, I am currently at the Path-Goal leadership approach. The Path-Goal is a theory based on specifying the behavior or style that an employee feels best and the working environment in order to achieve ultimate goals. In order to improve on this I will determine the environmental and employee characteristics by understanding what they want in order to get in a position to motivate them. Secondly, I will select a leadership style that includes being supportive, participative, directive and attaining achievements. Lastly, I will focus on motivational factors that will make employees succeed (Northouse, 2013). Giving rewards and promoting employees in accordance with their hard work helps in motivating employees to excel at their goal or task helping the company improve in its functionality. Transformational Leadership is the approach that I will apply in my leadership skill. This is according to the assessment that was done. This kind of leadership is a leadership style that if put into consideration, can inspire positive change to the employees that follow. The leaders are generally enthusiastic, passionate and energetic. They are involved and concerned in the process and focuses on helping every individual of the group succeed as well (Cherry, 2015). In order to improve on this leadership approach, I will encourage my employees to explore new ways of doing things and learning new opportunities. Also, I will offer support and encouragement to the employees. For this to come into action, I will keep open the lines of communication to the employees for them to feel free to share their ideas. This will help me offer direct gratitude of the sole contributions of each employee. I will again, help my employees to experience motivation and passion in order to fulfil the organizational goals. The Gender-Leader Implicit Association Test and Masculinity-Femininity Self-Assessment proved that I was gender sensitive. Gender sensitivity is one of the factors that affect the well- being of an organization. In most organizations, it has been observed that more males are employed in in comparison with the females. This has led to various world discussions to settle the situation at a balanced course. In order to look into this situation, I will make sure that the human resource management employs people in accordance with the qualifications but not gender aspects. Balancing the number of males and females in my firm will be the key strategy in my firm. Considering the cross-cultural aspects of leadership in every part of the world, my firm looks at this aspect by being in touch with any colleague, anywhere, anytime. A leader is supposed to be closely aligned with the cultural environment he or she hopes to lead. The culture might be in accordance with one corporation or much broader. It should be reflecting the nationality and language, or interests and ages of the employees. As a leader, I will be closely aligned with the culture I am involving myself in. Again, I will articulate and spread the values of my firm in a way that is explicit rather than implicit and my personal commitment to success will be often verbalized. I will also demonstrate energy and passion for the work that is being done and involving every colleague in the accomplishment of this aspects. In the world today, many employees seem not have trust and integrity with the management of the firm or organization they are employed in. According to my self-assessment, my employees are losing trust with the management. It has been observed that in a firm that employees trust their leaders and themselves at large, there is better business and innovation outcomes. In order to come into terms with my employees and colleagues, I will be an example to them by being authentic, embody the spirit I want the employees to adopt for me to raise the level of their trust (Kuhlmann, 2010). As a leader I will be aware of obligations to show respect and consider the welfare of others, and to keep my word in the promises I make. I will not stop in any circumstances, to work hard to strive for the right thing with effort, work and awareness to build my own character. After all this assessments, I can conclude that am in the right road to being an illegible leader of the future in comparison with the earlier assessments. Despite the few aspects that I am lacking, for instance, self-confidence I know with the few corrects that I have made, with time I will overcome shyness and gain courage to influence leadership amongst my employees. The assessment has proved that am in the right direction in deploying leadership in my firm. However, people will not agree with my self-assessment because for one reason or another, I have not explained into details about what they expect in me. Many people believe in firsthand information rather than the written word. In comparison with other leaders in my society, I am far behind reaching their target, but with time showing handwork and determination, I will make sure that the attributes that are letting me down are looked at. For instance, self-confidence and integrity which are the main factors that are affecting me for now will be eliminated by interacting with the core leaders of the society to achieve their level of leadership. References Business Matters. (2014). Why Self-Confidence is the Vital Ingredient of Great Leadership. Business Matters Magazine. Cherry Kendra (2015). What is Transformational Leadership?: how Transformational Leadership Inspire. Kuhlmann Arkadi (2010). Culture-Driven Leadership. Ivey Business Journal. Leviticus, J & Media, D. (2015). Top Five Leadership Traits, Qualities & Skills. Chron. Northouse, P. (2013). Leadership Theory and Practice: Thousand Oaks. Sage Publications, Inc. Peterson Joel (2013). Building a High-Trust Culture #1: It Starts With Integrity. Linked in. Read More